Roomba maker sues German companies for patent infringement

It’s not exactly Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, but there’s a bit of a robot battle happening in Germany anyway.

iRobot Corp., maker of home and defense robots, filed a lawsuit in the District Court of Düsseldorf against five German companies for allegedly infringing on its patents for its most well-known robot, the Roomba, a little circular robot friend who drives around your home vacuuming up your dust. iRobot claims that Elektrogeräte Solac Vertrieb GmbH, Electrodomésticos Solac S.A, Celaya, Emparanza y Galdos Internacional S.A, and Pardus GmbH are infringing on several of iRobot’s Roomba patents with their own vacuum cleaning robot.

“iRobot has made significant investments to protect its intellectual property. The company has sold more than 9 million home robots worldwide and intends to protect its patent portfolio by the appropriate means available domestically and abroad,” Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot, said in a press release.